There are many ways diabetes can be debilitating, even lethal. But one condition caused by the disease comes on without warning. A patient “can go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning and be legally blind, with no previous symptoms,” said Jonathan Stevenson, chief strategy and information officer for Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems (IRIS), speaking of the condition known as diabetic retinopathy.
While most complications of diabetes such as heart disease, kidney disease and nerve damage have overt symptoms, diabetic retinopathy can sneak up on a patient undetected, unless spotted early by regular eye exams. IRIS has been applying GPU-powered deep learning and Azure Machine Learning Services to provide early and broad detection of diabetic retinopathy, and prevent patients from losing their eyesight.
